Some N00b questions!

Comments

• Silverstar Member Posts: 2,207

  January 2015

  1. 10 Wisdom gives a -10 Lore penalty; lore lets you automatically identify magical items by looking at their description if it's high enough.
  
  2. Alignment matters little. It restricts/allows you to use some magical gear and in the case of a mage, determines what familiar you may summon. Personally I always play Chaotic Good and there's no real downside to the particular alignment.
  
  4. Barkskin has no effect if your AC is allready good. Basically it's additional protection for people with bad (high number) armour class. Refer to the spell's description. General rule of AC is the lower number the better. Negative AC is what you want.
  
  6. Correct.
  
  9. Detect Invisibility you can skip (True Sight is what you want), Charm Person is gradually less useful and I'm not a fan of confusion either. The rest of your list is pretty decent imo. Mirror Image/Blur/Stoneskin are great protection spells you should have.
  
  10. Sounds like you have some AI script on that doesn't agree with you. You can turn off AI scripts by clicking the small lantern or hitting A. On character record screen you can change the scripts used under Customize. Standard Attack, Passive and Ranged are probably the most useful ones.
  
  11. BGII can be completed with just about every group setup. Yours is fine.

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• Musigny Member Posts: 1,027

  January 2015 edited January 2015

  1- Not really. A higher wisdom means a higher lore and better options when casting a limited wish / wish spell. You can drink a potion of insight to increase your wisdom anyway.
  The limited wish spell can trigger a kind of easter egg quest. The wish spell is popular amongst so called powergamers because it can refresh your spellbook memorization without resting.
  
  2- Nothing really bad. However your alignment preselects your familiar (find familiar spell).
  
  3- The AC as shown on the shield is not exactly your final AC, there are Armor Class Modifiers (described on the top right panel of the record screen - scroll down the text) which are also taken into account, they depend on the type of damage.
  
  5-No, this is the decimal scale/division of a round (6 seconds).
  
  6- Correct.
  
  7- In the general case, unless you cast improved alacrity prior to casting other spells, there is a pause between spells and your mage has to wait for her next round.
  
  8- The number of attacks per round is exactly what it means. The speed factor drives the sequence of actions : the lower the speed factor is the sooner you act.
  
  9- Please read the spell descriptions. Knowing what to use and when to use a spell is part of the game learning curve.
  
  Edit: typos

  Post edited by Musigny on January 2015

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• lolien Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,108

  January 2015

  Otherwise: very good questions!

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• Pibaro Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,989

  January 2015

  > 1.She has 18 intelligence and 10 wisdom. Is this going to hinder me? (The lack of wisdom)
  
  No. High wisdom gives you high lore (good for identifying magical items), but 10 is definitely OK.
  Later in the game, if you cast wish spells, you'll have problems with the genie (but you can pump up wisdow with potions).
  
  > 2.She is aligned Chaotic good. Im sure i read somewhere that this is bad?
  
  Absolutely not!
  It's not bad. Don't worry about this.
  
  > 3. AC - The stat on the right is always higher than the stat in the shield. I presume the one in the shield is after gear modification, and the one on the right is the char's Base AC?
  
  Yes
  
  > 4. Jaheira has barkskin, but when I cast it on my main charname (AC10 on the right, AC 7 on the shield) it gives her AC4 on the right and AC1 in the shield; which i expected. However, when I cast the same spell on Minsc (AC8 on right, -1 in shield) nothing changes. I would expect this to go to AC2 on right, AC-7 in the shield. What gives? Also, if I cast armour on my main, and then barkskin I end up with a worse AC than with just barkskin (AC 1/6 with both but AC 1/4 with just barkskin) What gives? are the two actually any different as its just the number in the shield that matters isn't it?
  
  I need to check this, but barkskin doesn't stack with armor spell or with any physical armor.
  Try to cast it on Minsc when he isn't wearing an armor.
  Armor spell is an obsolete spell in BG2EE, it was good in Bg1EE, but now don't bother with it.
  
  > 5. Casting times; These are in seconds?
  
  Nope. This is weird.
  casting time: 1 means 1/10 of a round
  casting time: 5 means 5/10 of a round
  
  and so on, btu remember, you'll ever be able to cast only ONE spell each round (until you'll be able to use improved alacrity).
  
  So casting time is useful just to avoid interruption (or to interrupt someone else spell casting) and to cast it earlier
  
  > 6. Rounds - these are 6 seconds long each, correct?
  
  Yes 10 second real time (your watch time), but it's 1 minute game time (so 10 rounds are 1 turn and 60 round are 1 hour)
  
  > 7. Movement - sometimes when I cast a spell, my character stands and does absolutely nothing for a very long time. Is there some limitation stopping spells from being cast? Is it one spell per round or something? if thats the case, what else can I do in that round after spell casting?
  
  See answer 5
  
  > 8. Speed factor of weapons, anyone have a link to how this works? In Dungeon crawlers I've played, there is maths to be done to determine how many attacks you get per turn based on speed factor of the weapon. However, BGII has both speed factor AND an attacks per round stat. How do they relate?
  
  It doesn't work this way:
  Weapon speed factor acts like spells casting time (except you can't be interrupted).
  You usually can attack only once a round.
  If you dual wield, you attack once per round with every weapon.
  If you are a fighter type, at level 7 you gain 1/2 attack per round (with your main weapon only), and another 1/2 per round at level 13 (with your main weapon only).
  If you are a fighter type and put ** in weapon proficiency, you'll gain 1/2 attack per round (with your main weapon only) when wielding that kind of weapon, and if you put ***** you'll gain another 1/2 attack per round (with your main weapon only) when wielding that kind of weapon.
  If you drink a potion of speed you gain 1 attack per round bonus (guess what? Only with your main weapon).
  If you are under the effect of a haste spell you gain 1 attack per round bonus (with your main weapon only). Not stackable with potion of speed.
  If you are under the effect of a imrpoved haste spell you double the number of your attack per round (this is the only way to get 2 attack per round with yopur second hand weapon). It's stackable with everything mentioned before except potion of speed and haste spell.
  
  > 9. Any list of useful spells for a beginner mage? So far I have the following on my main; Which I'm bit confused by. For me, a mage blows everything and everything up before it even knows the mage is there; And if thats impossible then the mage disables it until it blows them up. A mage in my mind has no business holding a weapon. Am I misunderstanding BG's implementation of a mage, since I don't seem to have many "blow you up quick smart" spells?
  
  You'll have them eventually, don't worry!!!
  
  shield - nice spell.
  charm person (Which never seems to work and i don't use) - it worked better in BG1EE. You need to lower enemies saving throws to use this.
  magic missile - basic damage spell. Useful to interrupt enemies spell casting.
  chromatic orb - good spell when you'll higher level (if you lower enemies saving throws)
  detect invis - occasionally it's useful. If you play a non-modded game, you can skip this.
  mirror image - one of the best defensive spell.
  knock - Only if you have no thief (or a bad thief)
  aganizms scorcher - it's not party friendly, so you have to be careful, but if you learn how to use this, it's a very powerful spell.
  Haste - very powerful spell, but it will fatigue your party member, so be careful.
  fireball - Easy way: drink an invisibility potion (or invisibility spell), scout, when you see some enemies, go back and fry them from the distance (use fog of war). Hard way: make yourself resistance to fire damage (potions, scrolls or spells) and cast it.
  remove magic - it works great if your mage is a high level mage.
  stoneskin (Great spell) - yeah
  confusion (Don't use as it's a game over button since i always hit myself) - It's a party friendly spell, a great spell. Use this on your enemies.
  domination - better than charme
  
  > 10. My characters do silly things. For example I'm sure that every time they get hit, they stop. I was trying to make someone run away from something the other day but every time it took a swing at her she would stop moving and i'd have to re-issue the move command. Is there any way to stop this?
  
  I don't know.
  Try using a script and AI
  
  > 11. I read a good party is two fighters, a mage, a cleric and a thief. So far I have charname mage, Jaheira, Minsc, Anomen, Yoshimo and Nalia. I make that 1 thief, three fighters (two with magic) and a pure mage. Is this balanced? I don't want to spread XP too thin and gimp my characters.
  
  This can be a good party.

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• Delarado Member Posts: 8

  January 2015

  Thanks a lot guys...so off the back of those questions..
  
  Ive just found the find familiar scroll. Familiars - are they worth it? losing constitution forever seems like a BIG drawback; Especially when your familiar can be one shotted by some enemies?
  
  Ive turned off the AI script now and its much better, thanks for the tip.
  
  How do i know when the next round has come about, without setting the game to pause after every round? (Which is annoying)
  
  My mage seems to be standing around doing not very much at the moment, seeing as darts get used very quickly, and once she’s blown her spells she is useless. Am I doing something wrong, or will she improve with age?
  
  Ive spent a long time reading spell descriptions and just generally everything (Ive bene playing for 14 hours now and have only just completed my first quest out of the prison!) its hard to know though which spells are useful and which are not, even after reading the descriptions. Guess I’ll just have to test them out
  
  Thanks for the in-depth explanation of weapons and speed factors etc.
  
  How do I lower enemies saving throws?
  
  Great advice here from you guys, thanks very much for your detailed replies!

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• wubble Member Posts: 3,156

  January 2015

  You can talk to a familiar and pop him in your backpack, he'll be safe there.
  
  You can't really tell that precisely , casters waiting to cast will start at the beginning of a round.
  
  Your mage is fine, that's normal for that level. Once your mage levels up a bit more they'll be flinging spells left right and centre without needing to rest constantly.
  
  reading and testing is an excellent way to try things, you never know, a spell that might sound useless from it's description could come in extremely handy.
  
  you can lower enemies saving throws by casting things like doom and greater malison I think.

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• Silverstar Member Posts: 2,207

  January 2015

  If your mage has a quarterstaff (and proficiency in it) you can actually get some hits in after other party members has engaged the enemy since it has a long reach. It reaches roughly "through" one person. Enemies rarely re-target so it's safer than you'd expect. Of course your mage probably doesn't have a great chance to hit and probably not much strength either, but every little bit can help. And if it's crappy low level enemies like say goblins, you probably will do some damage actually.

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• Yannir Member Posts: 595

  January 2015

  Things like pre-buffing, preparation and scouting are a big part of this game. Some encounters are impossible to deal with if you run into them head first. Mind Flayers come to mind. Instantly cast uninterruptible psionic blasts will devastate your party if you don't know it beforehand. On the other hand, with preparation they are relatively easy to deal with.
  
  Mages start getting powerful when they can do lvl 6 spells. There are great spells before that but I think it as a threshold to power for mages. The non-party friendly AoE spells have limited use in SoA but they are awesome in Black Pits 2. Many of the early fights are easily won with throwing Web+Entangle, then throwing in Ice Storm, Firestorm, Cloudkill, Death Fog, etc. and then finishing enemies with Fireballs or Abi Dalzim's.
  
  "11. I read a good party is two fighters, a mage, a cleric and a thief. So far I have charname mage, Jaheira, Minsc, Anomen, Yoshimo and Nalia. I make that 1 thief, three fighters (two with magic) and a pure mage. Is this balanced? I don't want to spread XP too thin and gimp my characters."
  
  Honestly, I wouldn't worry about spreading XP too thin. The game was designed to be tackled with a party of 6. The more people you have, the more banter you have. And that makes the game for me atleast. Other than that, that looks like a solid party. Btw, Nalia is pretty much a pure mage since her thieving skills are mostly a joke. On a personal note, I'd take Jan over Nalia anytime but that's just personal preference.

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• Belanos Member Posts: 968

  January 2015

  Delarado said:

  
  My mage seems to be standing around doing not very much at the moment, seeing as darts get used very quickly, and once she’s blown her spells she is useless. Am I doing something wrong, or will she improve with age?
  

  Darts aren't really the best ranged weapon to use for Wizards. They have a fairly short range, and your Wizard should generally be towards the back more, not in the front lines where Darts will the most effective. You're better off using a Sling for that class. But if you insist on using them, you'll have no problem getting more of them once you get out of the starter dungeon. Most merchants have an unlimited supply.
  
  

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